Stocks surge to end week after surprise jobs report

Stock markets closed out the week on a high note following an unexpectedly good jobs report Friday.

The tech-focused Nasdaq composite erased its pandemic losses, closing up 198 points, or 2.1 percent, to hit a record at 9,814.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which reached nearly a 1,000-point gain during the day Friday, closed up 829 points, or 3.2 percent. The S&P 500 closed up 82 points, or 2.6 percent.

Economists had expected Friday’s jobs report for May to show unemployment spiking from 14.7 percent in April to near 20 percent. Instead, the jobless rate dipped to 13.3 percent as more states began reopening.

The unexpected turnaround also included a gain of 2.5 million jobs, giving investors hope that the recovery would be quicker than previously expected.

Erica Groshen of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, a former commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, said she expected a quick rebound for the worst of the job losses, but that high unemployment would continue well after.

“My thought is that we could get halfway back up that hole in fairly short order, about six months,” she said. “After that we enter the long, slow slog, which is still in the same territory we saw in the trough of the Great Recession.”